joewarkfanclub

Did Ryan Jack go to Turkey? 🤔

Certainly no idea about Koutroumbis. But based on his highlights reel and his 45 mins against Rangers Stama looks to have something about him. Different debate though.

PS The referee turned out to be the whistle/card happy pain in the arse predicted pre match.

Not too many stand outs this week. Some very average performances from most. The subs all improved us and mostly did well. Went for Ewen Wilson. Thought he stuck to his task today, despite being targetted by Aberdeen today. Put in some great last ditch challenges and tried to pass out from the back where he could. The young man is growing in stature.

Ok. Maybe not then! 😍😍😍

Thought it was a poor first half today. Our defence looked shakey from the off without coughing up too many chances. Just couldnt keep hold of the ball at all and as such offered nothing going forward. Our problem is definitely in midfield. Halliday and Davor together are just too slow against better sides. We cant continue to play Miller out of position when we have multiple options up top to allow him to play where he is most effective. We looked much better second half especially when Watt & Tavares came on. I thought we might have sneaked a point at the end, Moses has a great chance and Mitov makes 2 very good saves. We may have deserved it on chances created but probably not on balance of play. SK has some big decisions to make on Friday night. He needs to be bold and show he has the bottle to make them.

Its on Aberdeen TV apparently.....

I presume only outside the UK.

It depends what you mean by due diligence. I presume you mean his acknowledgement that Aussie teams have much longer pre seasons because they play a lot less games and have more time off? Obviously, Im no Sports Scientist, but it would never have occurred to me that our pre season training would increase the risk of injury to someone from a different league. I presume it would have been put to our sports scientists / fitness coaches and they havent flagged it up, so Im not sure its something that can be pegged on Kettlewell by himself. As for comparisons with Danzaki, didnt he turn out to be just not very good at football?

Thanks for providing some balance. I didnt think the first line was defeatist. I didnt say that I think we will lose. There are other posters who will do that. I go into every game thinking we can win it. But 50 years of following Motherwell tempers that a little. Aberdeen have started well. They seem to have found the right manager at last and have a squad of players that on paper should be better than ours. But we all know that football isnt played on paper, so there is always the chance of an upset. Despite our horrendous injury list, SK has managed to once again generate a real camaraderie in the dressing room. That together with the sprinkling of talent we have in the team could take us a long way. Im just not gonna get upset if we dont win today. As long as we play well and meet our "non negotiables" 😉

Not a fan of 3rd kits but that is a topper! Just a shame about the sponsor. They really should provide an option of purchasing it without. Even if it costs more......

Is it? Is it aye? Amazing how you can reduce 2 paragraphs to one sentence and pretend it supports your agenda. If we play brilliant tomorrow and lose 5-4 will you be calling for the managers head? Edit: shoulda checked my original post. It was actually 5 paragraphs.

I dont think the actual result matters too much for us on Saturday. Obviously any kind of result and the additional points that goes with that would be welcome. However, Im more interested in the performance and the development of the team this week. Aberdeen have 100% record so far, so losing to them on their own patch wouldnt be that much of a surprise or any kind of disgrace. But if we can be competitive with them, create chances against them and look like we are continuing in the manner in which we have started the season, I will be pretty happy. We really need to improve our home form this season as thats where most of our fans see us play and where any "feelgood factor" comes from. Away wins and points are welcome. But home points need to be our bread and butter. It takes so much more pressure off the manager and players.

Loved "Young George" in both his spells at Fir Park. Had a touch of class about him. One of the better full backs Ive seen play for us.

Mixed feelings about Clarke. I think he has done generally very well getting us to 2 finals, but there ARE serious question marks over his decision making in the summer. Persisting with a back 5 v Hungary after Tierney was injured and given Ralstons limitations at LWB was borderline criminal, and not spinning the wheel earlier in the second half when we needed to win was inexplicable. That said, I didnt see any point sacking him at that point when the only obvious alternative was David Moyes (same mindset, same players). I dont really care about his press conferences this week. I just want to see evidence on the pitch that he has looked openly at things and come to some positive conclusions. If he gets the team right tomorrow night and he wins the game, then he will have bought himself some time with this footsoldier.......

Great news. Well deserved. Anyone know why the boys call him Dougie?

I concur! 🧡❤️🧡

A rolling contract makes sense. Means no one can come poach SK or Frail without paying us a fee, and if we need to get rid, its never more than 12 months to pay up. Gives us stability and is a good message to send out to this squad, who all clearly buy into what SK is preaching. I also read that its something Brian Caldwell has done at previous clubs, so maybe just the CEO taking care of business......

I didnt think we were "brilliant" today, but we were solid enough and stood up to some fairly roughouse tactics as is usual from a Levein team. We were the better team for the most part and thoroughly deserved to win the game. The manner we did it was very pleasing. Of course we have loads of room for improvement. But given the number of injuries we have and the turnover of the squad, its hard to imagine we wont improve markedly as the season progresses. Plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

A little trickier today as no one was an absolute stand out. Went for Ewan Wilson as he was generally solid and made some great blocks and interceptions.

I really dont know what this team and manager need to do to please some folk. We were far from perfect today, but we dominated the game for 60 minutes, shoulda been outta sight before Levein spun the wheel with his subs, scored and goal and gave us a nervous 10 - 15 minutes. After that we dug in, got ourselves back in the game and deservedly scored the winner. For all our faults (and the managers) this team has something. Previous Motherwell teams would have found a way to lose that game. This one found a way to win it. If you cant be happy with that you need to find a different hobby. Given our injury list and fixture schedule, I would have bitten your hand off for 7 points at this stage. We now have a couple of weeks to rest and recuperate. Hopefully one or two will be closer to a return and the manager can get some fitness into the legs of those that need it (looking at you Tony!) Overall, it was a pretty decent day out.

Im guessing Stuparevic didnt go anywhere? Re Vale, I liked him in the advanced role. He knew how to hold the ball up well and bring others into play. Always felt Theo played better with Vale alongside rather than wide or deeper. He also makes good decisions when he has the ball. Whether he can score enough goals is another matter and probably depends on why he has been signed and where he is played.

Always a tough game up in Perth, never too much between the teams. Expect the same today. Its one of those weird fixtures though where Im usually more confident playing them up there than it Fir Park as it feels like we always seem to shit the bed against them at home. (No idea if the stats back that up btw!). Hoping big Gordon has a point to prove to some of his critics up there and gets us a clean sheet. If we do that there is every chance we can nick one and come home with the 3 points. Presume it will be same starting 11 as last week as SK "is big on" not messing with what he perceives to be winning formations. Be interesting to see what he does with Watt and Vale though as in theory they should be competing for the same spot. Looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.

Of course he is earning significantly more money for him and his family, playing with better players, better facilities, European football etc. But on balance, he probably made the wrong decision!

I think thats fair enough comment. Although his in game substitutions have been better in the last 2 games. Something I have been very critical of him for in the past. Hopefully that continues.